After a nearly 3-month-long commitment drought on the offensive side of the ball, Notre Dame received some very welcome news today when offensive tackle Joe Alt decided to verbally commit to the Fighting Irish. The 6’7″/260-pounder out of Minneapolis, MN is the 12th commit in the Irish Class of 2021 — a class which currently ranks 15th in the country.

Notre Dame entered the picture for Joe about a month and a half ago when they offered on May 24th. At the time of the offer, Joe was listed on all of the recruiting sites as a 235-pound tight end prospect — but that was updated to his current weight of about 260 shortly after. Joe is the son John Alt — former Iowa Hawkeye, first round draft pick, and 2-time pro-bowler with the Chiefs. John played with former Notre Dame offensive lineman Tim Grunhard for the Chiefs — a connection that certainly aided the Irish. Joe has not been able to visit Notre Dame yet due to the recruiting dead period, but he seems to have bonded really well with Jeff Quinn in the short amount of time since being offered, and the blend of “academics, football, and faith” at Notre Dame really appealed to him.

Recruiting Service Rankings

Rivals — 3 star TE (5.5 rating)

ESPN — 3 star (78 rating), NR nationally, #15 TE-Y, #4 in MN

247 Sports — 3 star (89 rating), NR nationally, #34 OT, #6 in MN

247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8617), #705 nationally, #61 OT, #8 in MN

Irish Sports Daily — 3 star OT (88 rating)

Cohort

Joe chose the Irish over other offers from Minnesota, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Northwestern, Rutgers, and Missouri. Iowa and Minnesota were the main competition in this one.

Highlights



Jamie over at ISD has a free film review post for Joe up (as he does with every new Notre Dame commit) which can be viewed here, for those of you who are interested. For a kid who still plays tight end at the high school level, he’s a very capable blocker. He plays with high effort, with good leverage, and is athletic for someone projected to play offensive tackle at the next level. A lot of tools to work with, but a raw prospect indeed.

Impact

I can’t imagine a scenario in which Joe does not redshirt his freshman year at Notre Dame. He has to put on a good 40-50 pounds or so before he’s even there physically. Jamie also touched on this in his film review, but he’s very inexperienced as a blocker right now so he needs to continue to learn the position. It will take a couple of years before he’ll be ready to see the field in any significant way.

Despite being a project, I think Notre Dame felt comfortable taking Alt for three reasons:

  1. His potential is really high. Allen Treiu with 247 has his player comparison as Jason Spriggs, the IU product who went in the second round to the Green Bay Packers a few years back.
  2. His pedigree. John Alt was a 6’7″/235-pound tight end upon arriving at Iowa as a freshman. In a few years, he would be starting at left tackle, then getting drafted in the first round and having a successful NFL career. Joe is a late bloomer like his dad, but he definitely seems to be developing a bit quicker.
  3. The Irish already landed prototypical blue-chip left tackles in 2019 (Andrew Kristofic) and 2020 (Tosh Baker). Quinn Carroll (2019) and Michael Carmody (2020) are also projected to play tackle as well. The Irish can take the time to develop a kid like Joe without feeling the need to rush him onto the field.

All in all, I personally like this pickup. If you’re going to sign a project at tackle I definitely think you want a tall, lengthy, athletic kid who will grow into the position over the next few years. That’s exactly what Joe Alt is. I’m excited to see how he develops.

——————————————————————————————————————————————–

Welcome to the Irish family, Joe!